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OOD TREE AND ITS FRUIT, 



A MEMORIAL SERMON 



THE LIFE AND SERVICES 



OF THE LATE 



PROFESSOR GEORGE IDE CHACE, 



THATCHER THAYER, D. D. 



T H p: good t r e p: and its fruit. 



A MEMORIAL SERMON 



THE LIFE AND SERVICES 



OF THE LATE 



PROFESSOR GEORGE IDE CHACE, 



THATCHER THAYER, D. D. 



DELIVERED IN 



THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, PROVIDENCE, 



yU.YE 14, jSSj. 



PROVIDENCE : 

PROVIDENCE PRESS COMPANY, BOOK PRINTERS. 
18S5. 



Iji excli*ng© 






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"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." 
Matthew vii. 17. 



This is so, of course ; for it is according to God's estab- 
lished order. Whatever appearances may be, only good 
trees bear good fruit. Thus it is known what they are as 
trees. So we reason from the good fruit in a man's life to 
what he is as a man. Not self, nicely baUuiced for good or 
bad fruit, but fully determined for good. .Thus our Lord, 
who saw such moral significance in nature, used a fruitful 
tree as a type of a good man. The Bil)le, true to our neces- 
sary conceptions and their expression, deals with ideals. 
So when we speak of the good man we must speak as John 
writes in his epistle. Briefly, then, the good man Avho bears 
fruit is one born of God, united to Christ by faith, living a 
new life in Him and conformed to His image. Thus the 
good man is the Christ-like man, and hence his relation to 
God is one of consciousness of God's love as manifested in 
Christ; is one of awe, of humble penitence and chikl-likc 
confidence, and willing obedience. ■ His relation to self is 
no longer swollen with exaggerated esteem, and prone to 
false estimates of all else — even to the crowding of God out 
of the soul — intent on its own pleasure — a sovereign fool 
— but to a self of due proportions, in harmony with other 
beings, in gracious subordination to a supreme law ; its "life 



hid with Christ in God." His relation to his fellow-men 
that of fullest recognition and sympathy — as children of one 
Father — sharers in one redemption, between whom recipro- 
cal duties are maintained by the absolute rule of love to 
God. Here, then, is a Scriptural view of a good man — 
good in his very inmost being. 

Such humanity cannot fail to bear good fruits. Eminent 
among these will be active benevolence to others. Perhaps 
we can conceive of a diiferent world from this, in which man, 
existing out of race conditions, might be called to exercise 
the same benevolence in a different mode from the present. 
However that might be, here morality is conditioned by race, 
and as evil manifests itself vicariously, and selfishness can- 
not act alone, but must represent and be in the place of 
others, even to curse, whether it will or not, so goodness 
has no choice but to manifest itself vicariously, and benevo- 
lence cannot act out itself without acting representatively, 
putting itself in the place of others. This condition is our 
social system — the good man, with more or less under- 
standing of its extent and significance, accepts and lives 
largely in and for others. Thus he uses power and wealth, 
and knowledge and philosophy and influence, and himself, 
too, for his fellow-men, bearing their burdens, identified 
very closely with them, suffering for them and with them. 
So obeying Christ and acting in His spirit, he unconsciously 
assimilates to Him. There is no limit to this blessed fruit- 
age. Hence the sight of a good man bearing good fruit is 
very desirable in our world. It is very convincing. Noth- 
ing proves Christianity like Christ, and a good man abound- 
ing in the fruits of the Spirit is worth more to prove the 
truth of the Gospel than a whole course of apologetic ser- 



mons which themselves need apologies. It is very discrim- 
inating. Every thoughtful man must be struck with the 
amount of moral confusion which prevails, and its disastrous 
effects. Despite what men claim for the actual conscience, 
it cannot make right, for that were to do away with moral 
substance ; but it can be so perverted and neglected as to 
mix inextricably right and Avrong to an unknown extent. 
This, in a measure, is the difficulty with men. Of course, 
they do much that they know to be wrong, but they do and 
say a great deal which is proved to be wrong, if anything can 
be, Ijut which they think right. In this way men come to 
be morally confused. They judge by unworthy standards; 
they look through media discolored by interest and prejudice 
and self-conceit. So it is that a fundamental need is a 
clearer moral perception. Now a good life lived steadily 
on, helps greatly to show the two great moral distinctions 
in the world. 

Again it is very assuring. There are times when so many 
wicked and mean things come to light unexpectedly, and so 
many characters, seeming white, turn suddenly black, and 
there is so much moral confusion among men, that one 
doubts and fears for right in this present at least. Then 
the sight of a true man is immensely comforting. So it is 
very elevating, for it lifts us up above the things we run 
after. We see, then, absolutely the highest, noblest excel- 
lence. For what in the greatest comparisons is art or any 
intellectual attainment, still less any public notoriety, least 
of all wealth, to goodness. God esteems that first, and He 
made us to esteem it so. It is because of the foolishness 
and degradation of sin that we put other things above good- 
ness. After all, how we turn to good men ! There is ff 



luxury in trusting such. Society depends on personal char- 
acter at last. Within all your fastnesses only the good man 
is sure. Individual men who have the kingdom of God 
within them are the great want. Real goodness with mod- 
erate talents is strong. But when God gives marked abili- 
ties and generous culture, with Christian benevolence acting 
out, then the image of the Lord is fulfilled on the largest 
scale — trees of noblest growth bearing richest fruit. 

How far this was fulfilled in him whom we remember 
to-day let each judge. Certainly a stately tree has fallen, 
a strons: rod of the vine is broken. Professor Chace came 
of a good New England family, vigorous in mind and body. 
You who are familiar with the scenes in which he passed his 
life, and the events in which he bore a conspicuous part can- 
not separate him from a somewhat remote past. You asso- 
ciate him with other and revered names, and involuntarily 
recall those earlier years of the college in which he began 
his career as instructor. The American college fifty years 
ago was a very different institution from that Avhich it has 
become and is yet more becoming. It was almost domestic, 
and its government aimed to be parental. Its habits were 
simple. Early prayers were not thought to be above the 
average strength, nor evening devotions excessive for that 
period, while morning recitations by candle-light did not 
require increased athletics. Its irregularities of conduct 
were more primitive, and sometimes had a certain grim 
humor characteristic of the youthful sinners of those days — 
which gave a kind of zest to their punishment wanting to 
the flatter offenses of modern students. Even in this State 
of " soul liberty," souls in Brown were content with alle- 
giance to their college, and did not ramify into intercolle- 



giate sodalities. They sta3'ed at home and lived in the family 
with paterfamilias and professors, who themselves rarely 
left their work, content with unremitting labor and the clas- 
sical ration — 'Uenui avena,'" — as interpreted by an English 
clergyman familiar with small incomes — whose tradition has 
been faithfully preserved in some, at least, of the salaries. 
A strong, earnest Christian Faculty had fair opportunities 
to impress deeply the students. Brown by all accounts had 
such a Faculty. Its President — to whom his alumni give 
an honora1)lc testimony rarely l)estowed, and yet strangely 
enough have been satisfied with a marble head as his memo- 
rial instead of a nobly endowed professorship — must have 
1)een a remarkable man. Without the grace of God he had 
l)een still Gii>'ans Pedagoffus, but Ijelieving; with all his mioht 
in Almighty God and Divine government l)y Jesus Christ, 
he was completely possessed in every fibre of his nature by the 
conviction of the eternal difference l)etAveen right and wrong. 
He w^as governed by an undying sense of obligation, and 
constrained by the love of Christ. So he taught even his 
philosophies in this fear and love, and lifted his pupils up to 
those heights in thinking and sought to make them true men 
to Christ. 

With such a President, Professor Chace commenced his 
course. How he sympathized with him, his own heartfelt 
eulogy of President Wayland is touching proof. Mr. Chace 
entered college in one of the earliest classes under this 
President, and is described as becoming distinguished at once 
in every department. He did those things best which 
demanded the severest exercise of intellect, and his college 
course was throughout singularly successful. A few months 
after takinir his degree he was called back to the college to 



8 

be one of the instructors, and thus he entered upon 
the career which he pursued with so much usefulness and 
distinction for more than forty years — first as a teacher 
of pure mathematics and mechanical philosophy ; then of 
those physical sciences in which he became a distinguished 
master, and finally as a teacher of metaphysics and ethics. 
When he became a professor of the physical sciences, they 
were just beginning to be taught in the new methods which 
now prevail ; indeed, they were only entering upon that 
wonderful expansion which now demands such various de- 
partments of instruction. The survivors of that period 
have sometimes called it the "heroic ag-e" of the college. 
Certainly in some aspects the period was heroic in bracing 
up the minds of the students to new habits of thought and 
study which came in with President Wayland's administra- 
tion. The vigorous tone imparted to the mind of the col- 
lege then has been justly attributed chiefiy to the great force 
of Doctor Wayland's personal contact, but it was also 
largely due to the men he gathered about him. Professor 
Chace, we are assured, exerted a quickening and lasting 
influence in this direction. His instructions in the sciences 
were given principally in lectures, and they have been 
described as brilliant and stimulating. The interest in them 
extended beyond the college, and numbers from the city 
attended his classes. It is a very pleasing fact to be remem- 
bered, that in one branch of industry for which Providence 
has become distinguished, and whose finest products require 
very considerable scientific knowledge, quite a company of 
mechanics followed some of his courses, and at their close 
presented him with a beautiful testimonial of their sense of 
the value of his instructions. We can conceive how much 



9 

plciisure this gnvo Professor Chace as an illustration of the 
practicalness of science, and above all as showing the imme- 
diate relation of the college to the community, a relation 
which from the first President Wayland and his associates 
tried to strengthen, and which every lover of the University 
must desire to see become more intimate and enduring, till 
this fair city rejoices in being the protector and constant 
benefactor of an institution at once its ornament and its 
blessing. 

The past is eloquent for this, in that the earliest and 
greatest benefactors of the college were citizens of Provi- 
dence. Nor has the city, at any period, ever failed to fur- 
nish generous givers. While in turn the college has always 
been represented in its schools and hospitals, and has en- 
riched its merchants and manufacturers and mechanics with 
its culture, and largely helped to save its wealth from vulgar 
display, and had no small part in promoting the refinement 
and intelligence of its homes. Professor Chace was re- 
garded as eminently fitted to investigate minutely and to 
generalize safely. This ability he exercised in the various 
departments of material nature, l)ut he had no less aptitude 
for metaphysical pursuits. He was a careful student of the 
relations between mind and matters, and of the mysterious 
analogies through which they reflect light one on the other. 
The results of these studies he frequently gave to special 
companies of students who met for this purpose, and there 
he unfolded the essential ideas of natural theology and the 
argument for immortality. So far, indeed, from his physi- 
cal studies having absorbed his capacity for psychological 
inquiries or dulled his sensibilities to their finest distinctions, 
his earlier direction of thouoht seemed rather to have ren- 



10 » 

derecl his mental vision in the sphere of intellectual and 
•moral philosophy more acute, and to have disciplined to 
severer limitations his use of analogical reasoning. Certain 
it is that when he actually became Professor of Metaphysics 
and Ethics he proved himself fully equal to the new de- 
mands on him. 

It was an emergency that arose in 1867 which led the cor- 
poration to appoint Professor Chace to this chair. The 
appointment required him to abandon the work of many 
years and enter a new field of lal)or. It was natural that 
he should hesitate. The sacrifice was great for any man to 
make. But his acceptance was urged as a necessity of the 
college, and on this ground he yielded to the solicitations 
which were addressed to him. In this department he spent 
the closing five years of his life as a Professor. How well 
he succeeded we all know. Many wdio hear me will testify 
to the thoroughness of his instructions and to the opinions 
they then formed of his power to impress on other minds 
the great truths of Christian ethics. To some, indeed, Avho 
have known little of Professor Chace as a scientific man, 
but who in these last years have been somewhat familiar 
with his treatment of metaphysical subjects, it is a question 
if metaphysical acumen was not his chief characteristic, and 
his last department was not best fitted to call out his highest 
powers. True, Professor Chace reminded one of the older 
thinkers on these matters in modes of thought and style of 
expression, that style being particularly simple and appar- 
ently never tempted to excuse imperfect conceptions by 
cloudy words. A great change in this respect has taken 
place ; but, after all, it ma}^ well be doubted if men go into 
deeper problems, or follow finer courses of thinking, or 



11 

express themselves more intelligil)ly. In this connection it 
may be mentioned that one of the last papers l)y Professor 
Chace was the review of a very al)le work on "Man a Crea- 
tive First Cause," in sup[)ort of the author, maintaining 
freedom to be true of man rather than of the will. It is 
marked l)y his usual acuteness, and shows him far better 
qualified to discuss "free-will and fore-knowledge absolute" 
with New England's greatest inet;i[)hysic'ian than mor*) pre- 
tentious writers, who, after painful etibrts to dislodge him, 
have come away leaving Edwards still on the Will. Even 
later than this is an address read before the Rhode Island 
Medical Society, in which is manifested his attmction to 
such themes and his ability to treat them. 

Professor Chace closed his college work in 1872. It had 
extended from nearly the beginning of Doctor Wayland's 
Presidency through those of his two immediate successors. 
His service had been constant in the la])oratory and the 
lecture-room, and in every other way in which he could })ro- 
mote the interests of the institution. He retlected honor on 
his college, and it is a grateful office to pay him the hearty 
tribute. He had acted in the fear of God and never shrunk 
from duty. "The good tree bore good fruit." 

And now to human view here was a public life well 
rounded otf, looking out from a home of intelligence and 
affection upon those whom he had helped to train — here a 
man of science, there an honored jurist, and again a mission- 
ary of the cross ; bearing a name of high repute in the com- 
munity, his society sought by the cultivated and the good, 
how might he well have rested from labor and s})cnt an old 
age calm with philosophic thought and bright with Christian 
hope. But he shrunk from ceasing to do good. God had 



12 

yet a noble work with which to crown his life. The union 
of letters with public affairs has ever been a favorite theme, 
and a beautiful mind lately with us took pleasure in dis- 
coursing of the "Scholar in Politics.*' We remember, too, 
that Plato dreamed of a republic administered by philoso- 
phers. As idealized, this is an agreeable vision. Actually, 
it is a rare sight. When attempted, " Bays " are apt to get 
soiled from ignoble contact. But the scholar, the man of 
science, the philosopher, in works of benevolence and insti- 
tutions of reform, is an association which one can contem- 
plate with the greatest confidence in the good sure to result. 

A year and a half was spent by Professor Chace in travel 
and residence abroad, and then he returned to find a field of 
the greatest usefulness and engrossing activity open before 
him. 

In May, 1874, a few months after his return, he was 
appointed a member of the Board of State Charities and 
Corrections, and was at once chosen chairman by his asso- 
ciates. The work accomplished by this board has been too 
well described to need any detailed account here. The State 
may well be proud of the system and order now established 
in the institutions under its care. But it required great 
knowledge and sound judgment, with immense labor, to bring 
them into their present state. Professor Chace gave almost 
all his time and thoughts to this work, and his associates 
unite in the testimony to his varied qualifications, to his 
devotedness and his conciliatory spirit. He was also a trus- 
tee of the Butler Hospital and president of the Rhode Island 
Hospital. In this last ofiice he continued till his death. He 
has had the happiness of seeing this institution increase in 
strenoth and usefulness. Those connected with him in its 



13 

administration embrace this opportunity to put on record 
their high estimation of his merit as their presiding officer. 
They recall his conscientious attention to the minutest con- 
cerns of the hospital, the judicious use of his scientific 
knowledge in its service, ai;^i his large conception of its 
future. His fairness in the treatment of questions, the uni- 
form courtesy of his bearing, and his never-failing kindliness, 
all come to mind as on this day they rememl)er their loss. 

Professor Chace was happy in these labors. His student 
life had not estranged him from the outside Avorld. He 
deeply felt himself a partaker of a common humanity ; and 
the terrible facts of crime and madness and suttering 
aftected him as in its unity. Hence Christ's vicarious love 
in ministering to the bodily woes of men i)articularly im- 
pressed him, and he loved to think of such works done by 
His disciples as obedience to Him " who l^ore our griefs and 
carried our sorrows." In a paper read before the Baptist 
City Mission al)out this time there is a striking exhibition of 
his Christian feeling. It is full of sympathy with the 
degraded and neglected, and he speaks as one who habitually 
came very near to them in his efforts for their good. There 
is in it, too, a profound appreciation for the Gospel as fitted 
to human Avants, and a most tender and reverential apprehen- 
sion of Christ Himself. Indeed, those who saw most of 
Professor Chace's private life could not fail to see the blessed 
influences of such labors on his own spirit. 

There remains but one more public relation of Professor 
Chace to notice. Very pleasant it must l)e for the pastor 
and meml)ers of this ancient church to recall his loyalty to 
it. Here in early life he professed his faith in Christ. 
Here he remained steadfast through many changes and 



14 

unwavering in its support. Largely under his guidance 
and with unstinted gifts and efibrts, this hallowed building- 
has been renewed. Nor has his care for the church ceased 
with his life, but his thoughtful benevolence has reached on 
to its poor in all time to come. 

We rear monuments to the memory of those we honor. 
It is well, but they only testify to feeling. Nor can stone 
and iron keep men's names in remembrance long. But ben- 
efactions to institutions for the good of men continue with 
ever- widening blessings, and bear on into the ages the mem- 
ory of those who gave. So we love to think that this hon- 
ored name will endure associated with ceaseless benefits in 
the college he served so faithfully and in the hospitals so 
long the object of his care. 

In full ripeness of years, in a home of undimmed happi- 
ness, with the name of his Saviour last on his lips, this long- 
life of usefulness passed away. A good tree, it bore good 
fruit to the end. 

We need not delay on the moral of such a life. It is its 
own moral. It helps to answer the question now so often 
asked since once it has been formulated. It is the question 
of human nature, tired of itself and yet without penitence : 
"Is life worth living?" If the life to be lived is after some 
of the patterns the actual world proposes ; if it be to gain 
power, and to that end to intrigue and buy and flatter and 
decry and to be decried, and at last be disappointed and be 
consumed with heart-burning ; if it be to toil for wealth 
and struggle in fierce competitions and see the weaker go to 
the wall and hear their moans and hisses, and have at last 
the curse of Midas ; if to strive for social place and sacrifice 
simple taste and natural afiections and Christian obligation ; 



15 

if even to be wholly given up to the nobler contentions of 
the intellect, and end with nothing but refined sensations ; 
or, in a word, if life in our civilization is to be the growing 
weariness of a burdened self without God, and without 
hope, and then, then to die like a dog. No ! Life is not 
worth living. 

But if the life to be lived is after the pattern of that 
glorious Life once lived on earth, our own humanity com- 
plete in goodness standing out in light on our dark ground 
of guilt and sin — our Saviour and example; if life be to 
live as He lived, not for self, but for God and fellow-men ; 
to use Avealth and knowledge, and all the powers of the 
mind and body and the very self to this end, to bear others' 
burdens and lift up the fallen and unite discordant men one 
to another in Christ — head of a new humanity — for which 
the groaning earth is waiting ; a life full of the conscious- 
ness of God and of man's true worth in beinof and havins: a 
blessed immortality — yes, a thousand times yes ! For 
after all, it is a great world to redeem and to be redeemed 
in ! Just the world for the Son of God to be manifested in, 
and fulfill the highest idea of love ! Just the world for us 
guilty men to be forgiven in, and for us selfish men to be 
radically changed in and built up into characters of moral 
excellence through mixed issues of joys and sorrows ! Just 
the world, with its «m»c unity and interwoven relations for •«• t Ck 
the spirit of Christ continually to reappear in, and so for all ^tmm 

grand and magnanimous and tender and gentle afiections to 
grow and expand in. 



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